The Face of Immortality

Davide Stimilli

Description

The literature on physiognomy—the art of studying a person's outward appearance, especially the face, in order to determine character and intelligence—has flourished in recent years in the wake of renewed scholarly interest in the history and politics of the body. Virtually no attention, however, has been devoted to the vocabulary and rhetoric of physiognomy. The Face of Immortality addresses this gap, arguing that the trend in Western culture has been to obliterate the face, which is manifested in criticism as a disregard for the letter.

Denouncing this trend, Davide Stimilli draws on Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, English, and German sources in order to explore the terminology and historical development of physiognomy. Stimilli takes physiognomy to be the resistance to such an obliteration of the face, and argues that it offers a model for a theory of reading that does not discount the letter as inessential. Elaborating on the work of Walter Benjamin, he defines the task of physiognomical criticism as transliteration (which preserves the letter) rather than translation (which obliterates it). The Face of Immortality is meant to exemplify the method and test the reach of such a criticism, which aims at mediating between philology and philosophy, between literal and allegorical modes of interpretation.

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction : The Strategy of Immortality

1. Symmetry and Concinnitas

2. Character and Caricatura

3. Dysopia and Discountenance

4. Air and Aura

5. Nemesis and Aphanisis

Notes

Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Esthétique et philosophie de l'art
• Película fotográfica
• History of art
• Visual culture
• Literary theory
• Film
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780791484241
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

TheFace of Immrtality

Physiognomy and Criticism

Davide Stimilli

The Face of Immortality

SUNY series, Intersections: Philosophy and Critical Theory Rodolphe Gasché, editor

The Face of Immortality

Physiognomy and Criticism

Davide Stimilli

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2005 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

Cover photo: Andrea Pisano,Speranza,from [Giovanni Paolo Lasinio],Le tre porte del Battistero di San Giovanni di Firenze,Firenze 1821. University of Chicago Library.

The Northwestern University Research Grants Committee has provided partial support for the publication of this book. We gratefully acknowledge this assistance.

For information, address the State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207

Production by Diane Ganeles Marketing by Susan Petrie

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Stimilli, Davide, 1960– The face of immortality : physiognomy and criticism / Davide Stimilli. p. cm. — (SUNY series, Intersections) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-6263-3 (alk. paper) 1. Face (Philosophy) I. Title. II. Intersections (Albany, N.Y.)

B105.F29S75 2004 128'.6—dc22

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2003070443

To my parents e¶tucÍV m°n, ™ll’ ˙mwV tΩ tÍn tek¬ntwn’¬mmaq’ ‘ –diston bl°pein

A spirit pass’d before me: I beheld The face of immortality unveil’d— Deep sleep came down on every eye save mine— And there it stood,—all formless—but divine. Byron,Hebrew Melodies

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Contents

Introduction: The Strategy of Immortality Chapter 1 Symmetry andConcinnitas Chapter 2 Character andCaricatura Chapter 3Dyso¯ pia and Discountenance Chapter 4 Air andAura Chapter 5 Nemesis andAphanisis Notes Index

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Illustrations

Rembrandt,Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Purchase, special contributions and funds given or bequeathed by friends of the Museum, 1961. (61.198) “Zodiac Man,” from Joannes de Ketham, Fasciculus medicinae, Venice 1500. Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. “Homo bene figuratus,” fromDi Lucio Vitruuio Pollione de Architectura Libri Dece traducti de latino in Vulgare, Como 1521. Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. Socrates-Stag, from Giambattista Della Porta, De humana physiognomonia, Vici Aequensi 1586. Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. Plato-Dog, from Giambattista Della Porta,De humana physiognomonia, Vici Aequensi 1586. Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. Poliziano-Rhinoceros, from Giambattista Della Porta, Della fisonomia dell’ hvomo, Napoli 1610. Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. Johann Sigismund Elsholtz,Anthropometria, sive, De mutua membrorum corporis humani proportione, & naevorum harmonia libellus, Frankfurt an der Oder 1663. Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

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